On February 24, 2014, IRS Criminal Investigation ("CI") announced the release of its 2013 annual report, which reflected a significant increase in criminal investigations and prosecution recommendations in the past year. According to the report, there was an increase of 12.5 percent in completed investigations and an increase of nearly 18 percent in prosecution recommendations in comparison to 2012. Convictions also rose by more than 25 percent in comparison to 2012, with the IRS conviction rate, including guilty pleas, holding steady at 93 percent in 2013. The announcement specifically highlighted that the IRS achieved these gains despite the number of Special Agents having fallen by 5.4 percent over the past year. IRS CI's investigative priorities in 2013 included a broad range of issues, including stolen identity refund fraud, return preparer fraud, international tax fraud, the Fraud Referral Program, political and public corruption, organized crime, asset forfeiture, the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, and terrorism finance.
The text of the IRS CI Annual Report can be found here. http://www.irs.gov/pub/foia/ig/ci/REPORT-fy2013-ci-annual-report-02-14-2014.pdf
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